Home
by Liyorah
Summary: Persephone ponders just exactly what home is to her now. Rated T for mild sexuality, but nothing descriptive.


_One shot. Persephone and Hades are really my OTP. I swear, if I only had one, they win._

_Please rate and review and whatever else you'd like. Un-beta'd because I literally can't go out looking for one... I am that busy. This story hit me on a whim._

* * *

Home was no longer with Mama in their cottage. Home couldn't be with Mama anymore… it was… a tiresome deed now, to regain the name Kore… to be put into maiden's gowns, gowns that hardly reached her knees, to be chatted to as a child, to be chastised with warnings that would lead to thrashings. To be excluded from conversations that would be _harsh_ to such delicate ears. She did not understand it. She had been named a true Goddess: a Goddess of seasons, of Spring itself: the time where are all the flowers grew. There had been a celebration, there had been congratulations and everything and yet, the girl had never felt so powerless. Never felt so much like a shade to her Mama since then.

All the ways Kore was treated in the Upperworld simply did not belong in the universe of _Persephone_ anymore. It did not seem to matter how much she loved her mother, or even now, her new friends, how she loved to come to Olympus, to the great golden fields of Zeus and Hera… for she did _love_ all of them and all of it. But not enough.

It was not home. Nothing made it such a way anymore. She missed the dark chill of the great dark halls so far below her, for even then, they were filled with fire and warmth. She missed the quiet ponderings of the wise deities as they were the ones who taught her things she had never thought to know.

She missed the luxuriousness of Queen. Of those who looked up towards her instead of down to pat her head. When she visits her Father as Kore, she misses sitting on the council. She misses her seat, for it is not hers: that seat is not for Kore. It for Persephone. Does she miss the power? Nay, for she rarely uses it. Perhaps the child misses the chance the prove herself herself: to become more of a true Goddess then she ever thought possible.

None of this, absolutely none of this compares though to the missing she has for her husband, for _her_ Hades. She could live as Kore without a word of complaint, without even a thought of unhappiness… if she was living as Kore who went home to Hades every night. For that is what truly stings. She sees him in her dreams, she knows now, from Morpheus's interventions… but only so rarely. She sees him at Olympian parties… but only for a pacing glance or a secret shared moment alone…

It is not enough, it is never enough, than when it is to be Persephone, to be his wife. For when she comes to the Underworld, yes, there are many fields she plays in, and there is a throne she sits in, there are kitchens she bakes in, and there are halls and ballrooms she dances in, there are paths she wanders…and that is so much more than she could ever want! But, above all… there is a bed.

There is a bed set in the Underworld, done in red, gold, and black silks. It lies on the fourth floor of the palace, and it is a part of a series of apartments. Apartments built for a King.

And a Queen.

And this bed is a bed for two. Only and always just… two.

She misses that bed most of all when she curls up in Kore's sheets. She misses those goose-feathered cushions when she rests against Kore's pillows. She loves that bed that resides so far below her during spring and summer. That bed that only exists in the Underworld is where she can welcome the one she loves more than anything into her body… and to this day, there is always just a brief bit of pain… and then… Persephone is _home_. To make love with Hades often reminds her of when fall comes. To leave the Upperworld causes just a bit of pain, but is nothing compared to the bliss of being where she belongs. To lie in the arms of her dark Husband, and to speak to him, to know his heart better than all… to laugh with him and press kisses to his face. To play the childish games she will always love, and to tell him stories of all she has discovered… for he is much wiser, and he knows much more, yet he still listens intently to her every word. To be guided under his teachings and to grow into her powers. To love him with every little piece of her heart, for he is that special person… he is her other half. He is what makes her _whole_.

The Upperworld can't be home anymore.

Even the Underworld doesn't _quite_ fit.

Just Hades… that… that is her true home.


End file.
